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The $3 Billion Sprint: When Q3 Ends with Chips, Code, and $300M Seeds

OpenAI, AMD, Vercel, and much more!

October 09, 2025

Deep Dive

OpenAI's AMD Power Play: When Your Supplier Becomes Your Equity Partner

The chip wars just got interesting—and AMD's stock is up 43% in three days.

The Big Picture

OpenAI and AMD announced a multi-year partnership to deploy 6 gigawatts of AMD Instinct GPUs, beginning with 1 gigawatt in 2026, in what analysts estimate could be worth up to $100 billion. But here's the revolutionary part: AMD gave OpenAI the option to buy up to 160 million shares—a potential 10% stake in the company. AMD stock skyrocketed 43% this week, and even Nvidia's CEO called it "clever."

The Deal Structure

The Hardware Commitment: OpenAI will deploy 6 gigawatts of AMD Instinct MI450 GPUs starting in the second half of 2026, with the first gigawatt deployment triggering the initial equity vesting. For context, 6 gigawatts of compute represents enough power to run ChatGPT and future models at unprecedented scale.

The Equity Innovation: As OpenAI purchases more compute capacity, additional stock tranches vest. Analysts estimate AMD's own rising stock price could effectively finance OpenAI's chip purchases, potentially granting OpenAI up to $100 billion in value.

Why This Matters

Breaking Nvidia's Monopoly: OpenAI is diversifying away from complete dependence on Nvidia chips—a strategic necessity as AI compute demand explodes. The AMD structure represents a new model: suppliers providing chips in exchange for equity stakes, creating intertwined fortunes rather than simple vendor relationships.

Market Validation: Even Nvidia's CEO Jensen Huang called the deal "clever" and admitted he was "surprised" AMD offered such favorable equity terms. When your biggest competitor compliments the deal, you know it's significant.

The Takeaway

This isn't just a chip purchase—it's a fundamental restructuring of how AI infrastructure gets financed. By turning OpenAI into a major shareholder, AMD has locked in its most important customer while ensuring OpenAI has every incentive to make AMD succeed.

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The Market Pulse

AI Infrastructure Dominates Q3 Finale: When $3+ Billion Flows in Seven Days

The final week of Q3 delivered a capital deployment masterclass, with over $3 billion invested across transformational technology sectors. Cerebras Systems' $1.1 billion Series G headlines a week where AI infrastructure, developer platforms, and breakthrough biotech commanded mega-rounds from institutional investors. The data tells the story: Q3 2025 venture funding jumped 38% year-over-year, driven by massive rounds to AI giants and infrastructure plays.

AI Chip Wars Enter Supercomputing Scale

Cerebras Systems closed a $1.1 billion Series G at an $8.1 billion valuation, led by Fidelity and Atreides Management, to expand its wafer-scale AI chip manufacturing and data center capacity. The company's WSE-3 chip packs 900,000 AI cores—56 times larger than the biggest GPU—delivering inference speeds 20x faster than competitors. Meanwhile, Nscale added $433 million in pre-Series C funding just days after its record $1.1 billion Series B, accelerating its 100,000-GPU data center buildout across Europe under OpenAI's Stargate initiative.

Developer Platforms Reach Infrastructure Scale

Vercel raised $300 million at a $9.3 billion valuation (co-led by Accel and GIC), while Supabase secured $100 million to hit $5 billion valuation. Both rounds signal that developer platforms powering AI applications have matured into mission-critical infrastructure. Vercel's AI Cloud serves OpenAI, Anthropic, and Nike, while Supabase's open-source backend now supports over 1.7 million developers with $70M+ ARR.

Record Seed Rounds Signal New Era

Periodic Labs emerged from stealth with a $300 million seed round—led by Andreessen Horowitz with backing from Jeff Bezos, Eric Schmidt, and Google's Jeff Dean—to build autonomous "AI scientist" laboratories for materials discovery. Flying Tulip raised $200 million in seed funding at a $1 billion valuation for its full-stack on-chain exchange. These unprecedented early-stage valuations prove that exceptional founding teams with transformational visions can command infrastructure-level capital from day one.

Legal Tech and Biotech Attract Mega-Rounds

The legal technology sector saw massive deployment: Filevine closed $400 million across dual rounds, while Eve raised $103 million at unicorn valuation. European biotech commanded attention with NanoPhoria's €83.5 million Series A for inhalable heart therapy and Trogenix's €80 million for "Trojan Horse" gene therapies targeting glioblastoma. Combined, these sectors represent nearly $750 million in capital flowing to AI-powered professional services and breakthrough therapeutics.

📌 TL;DR

  • Capital: $3B+ deployed in seven days, concentrated in AI infrastructure and developer platforms

  • Strategy: Q3 2025 funding up 38% YoY, driven by institutional bets on AI compute and tooling

  • Spotlight: Record $300M seed rounds signal new era of early-stage capital for transformational science

  • Sectors: AI chips, developer tools, legal tech, and biotech leading deployment

Latest Fundraises from Major Firms (PE, VC, and Institutional Investors)

Venture Capital & Growth

  • Better Tomorrow Ventures raised a $140M third fund to back early-stage fintech startups (Techcrunch)

  • Crystal Venture Partners raised its first fund in the amount of $33M to back early-stage founders using AI to modernize insurance and other complex regulated industries (Fortune)

  • Touring Capital closed its debut fund at $330M to back AI-driven SaaS at Series B and C (Infor Capital)

  • Wave Function Ventures raised a $15.1M debut fund backing early-stage deep tech startups in fields like nuclear energy, robotics, and aerospace (IndexBox)

  • Boost VC closed Fund 4 at $87M to back frontier tech startups (VCWire)

  • Notion Capital closed a $134M third growth fund (Notion Capital)

  • 55North held a €134M first close of its inaugural quantum technology fund (Businesswire)

  • Toyota launched a $670M strategic arm called Toyota Invention Partners and a $800M second fund called Woven Capital (Yahoo Finance)

Private Equity & Credit

  • Bain Capital raised $14B for its fourteenth flagship PE fund, exceeding its original $10B target (Pitchbook)

  • Blackstone raised $10B for its third Asia buyout fund and is continuing towards its $12.9B hard cap (Bloomberg)

  • Brookfield raised $23.5B for its largest-ever energy transition fund (Morningstar)

  • Manulife Investment Management raised $5.5B for its largest-ever infrastructure fund (The Logic)

  • Ares Management raised $5.3B for its infrastructure secondaries strategy (TipRanks)

  • Meridiam raised $1.8B for its fourth North American infrastructure fund, exceeding its $1.7B target (Institutional Real Estate)

  • Energy Impact Partners raised $1.36B for its third growth-stage fund (Axios)

  • TCG Crossover raised $1.3B for its third fund (Businesswire)

  • Gemspring Capital raised $1.1B for its latest growth equity fund (PRNewswire)

  • Ridgemont Equity Partners raised $3.975B for its fifth middle market buyout fund (Businesswire)

  • Verdane raised €2B for its Freya XII growth fund (Verdane)

  • Radical Ventures raised $650M for its early-stage AI fund (The Logic)

  • August Equity raised £350M for its sixth lower middle market buyout fund (August Equity)

  • Point 41 Capital raised $400M for its debut fund (Buyouts)

  • Hughes & Company raised $260M for its second fund focused on healthcare software and technology-enabled services (AltAssets)

  • Razor's Edge raised $560M for its fourth fund focused on national security investments (GovConWire)

  • Evantic Capital raised $400M for its debut venture fund focused on B2B AI startups (Bloomberg)

  • Ventech raised €175M for its sixth fund focused on European tech startups at seed and Series A stages (Ventech)

  • Cibus Capital launched a $200M fund focused on Australian forest carbon credit markets (SeekingAlpha)

  • RCP Advisors raised $1.3B for its fifth secondaries fund (RCPAdvisors)

  • Glentra Capital raised $940M for its debut fund (Glentra)

  • Brookfield raised $4B for its fourth infrastructure debt fund (Connectmoney)

  • Banner Ridge plans to raise $3.2B for its sixth flagship secondaries fund (Secondaries Investor)

  • Woven Capital raised $800M for its second fund (AltAssets)

  • Berkeley Partners raised over $610M for its sixth light industrials-focused real estate fund (AltAssets)

  • CVC credit unit raised $12.2B for its European private credit strategy (CVC)

  • Northlane Capital Partners raised $750M for its third fund focused on health care and business services companies (AltAssets)

  • Blue Sage Capital raised $287M for its first credit fund (AltAssets)

  • A team of EQT and McKinsey alumni plans to launch ETNA, a European PE firm targeting defense and cyber-security deals (PrivateEquityNews)

Specialized Funds

  • Boost VC closed Fund 4 at $87M to back frontier tech startups (VCWire)

  • Brazil's Development Bank and Export-Import Bank of China agreed to create a $1B fund to invest in energy transition, infrastructure, mining, agriculture, and AI (Mining)

  • Siguler Guff raised $440M for its new credit fund targeting Brazil legal claims (WSJ)

  • M&G Investments raised a $350M commitment from Dutch pension KPN to launch an impact-focused private credit strategy (M&G)

  • Danish VC 55North launched a $350M debut fund to invest in quantum startups (Global Venturing)

  • Indies Capital Partners raised $300M for its fourth private credit fund (TechInAsia)

  • Striker Venture Partners raised $165M for its debut fund to invest in just 10 startups, including pre-revenue and pre-product (WSJ)

Top Jobs

Venture Capital roles

Associate at Cerity Partners (Los Angeles)

Associate at Pegasus Tech Ventures (San Jose)

Associate at Performant Capital (Chicago)

Associate at Ridge Ventures (SF)

Associate at BIP Ventures (Atlanta)

Associate at Pathlight Ventures (NYC)

Growth Equity Roles

Associate at Updata Partners (DC)

Analyst at JMI Equity (San Diego or DC)

Investor at Stripes (NYC)

Private Equity (Buyout) Roles

Senior Associate at Graycor (Chicago)

Associate at Ares (Los Angeles)

Associate at Access Holdings (Baltimore)

Senior Associate at StepStone (NYC)

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